The anaesthetic management of a 25-year-old parturient with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (Still's disease) and a difficult airway presenting for elective Caesarean section is described. Inadequate block after epidural anaesthesia necessitated general anaesthesia. This was safely accomplished by securing the airway with awake oral fibreoptic intubation before general anaesthesia was induced. The problems of performing an awake fibreoptic intubation in a pregnant patient are discussed and a simple method for performing the technique is described.